


Morning Sun

by SuperSquiddle



Category: Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions, Pocket Monsters: Black 2 & White 2 | Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 Versions
Genre: Addiction, Agender Reader, Blood, Dont expect NSFW from me, Gambling, Other, This is the most niche shit but here I am LOL, Trying to make a four course meal with the tiny scraps of characterisation the manga gave me, Vampire!Grimsley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2020-12-24 11:07:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21098459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuperSquiddle/pseuds/SuperSquiddle
Summary: After investigating a seemingly abandoned mansion in the middle of Losthorn forest, you stumble across its vampiric resident and decide to make a bet. If you win you get to go home with the photos you took of him. If you lose you must help him become human again. The odds aren’t exactly in your favor.





	1. Place Your Bets

**Author's Note:**

> Well it's spooky month, so of course I needed to start another book length fic. I'm insanely motivated for this one and I have a plan this time so I shouldn't get burnt out before the finish line. I hope you guys enjoy it.

Loud bustling crowds, neon lights and a constant air of manufactured happiness; these are the things one must get used to while living in Nimbasa City. The world’s city of leasure shines brightly through the darkness as you weave your way through the northern outskirts of the urban jungle, stopping just before a little known path leading into the Losthorn Forest, which lines the city’s edge. You take hold of the camera hanging around your neck and release your partner from its capsule. A fluffy Pokemon cheers and spins, excited at the prospect of another adventure. 

You crouch in front of your Whimsicott and ask, “you ready for this?” 

She salutes, and the two of you forge ahead into the unknown. 

…

This isn’t the first time you’ve marched forward into the unknown in the middle of the night. In fact, you do it for a living. You’re a journalist for an absolutely reputable tabloid called PokePlus which features real stories from real people, and you are  _ proud _ to work for them, at least you keep telling yourself that. The section you run is everything to do with the spooky and supernatural, whether its a ghost type haunting a family, an old legend or an abandoned building, if you smell a potential scoop you will be there with your trusty Whimsicott. 

The job at the tabloid allowed you to move to Nimbasa a few years ago from your hometown Nacerne. Recently you’ve caught wind of a scoop a little closer to your current home, a supposedly abandoned mansion a few miles into Losthorn Forest. You’re honestly surprised you haven’t heard of this place until now, but everyone keeps away from it, saying it’s cursed. Usually that means a bunch of ghost Pokemon have taken up residence inside, but despite the usual reality of the situation your readers eat it up every time. 

You shine your flashlight along the path and smile confidently at your Pokemon, who is floating atop the wind beside you. The night air is chilly and the sound of nocturnal Pokemon comforts you; exploring places like this is the best part of your job, you wouldn’t trade it for the world. At least this is what you mumbled to yourself as the cries of distant creatures slowly diminished the further you kept walking. Your pace slows, and you begin to take further notice of your surroundings; no bug Pokemon as far as the eye could see. Usually they would be sluggishly wandering away from your flashlight’s beam at this hour, there was a lack of scuttling in the bushes too.  _ Well this is a little disturbing…  _ You thought, who knows, maybe this place really was cursed or something? That thought just made you more curious however, you grab ahold of your Pokemon's tiny paw and pick up the pace.

After half an hour of brisk walking a large object loomed eerily in the distance. A mansion, just as the rumors said. Dark, cold and covered with overgrown rose vines. From what your light illuminated you could tell the building was old, perhaps Victorian, with numerous balconies, spires and an array of windows with the curtains drawn. The garden out front was a mix of dead and outgrown plants, it didn’t look like this place had been inhabited for years. You take a photo of the front balcony before strolling casually up the stairs and knocking on the front door. You waited for it to open, occasionally ghost Pokemon enjoyed letting you into places just to mess with you, but nothing happened. The door remained firmly shut. You raised an eyebrow and tried to open it. Locked. Strange. 

“Well, I guess we’re getting in the fun way.” You grinned at Whimsicott.   
  
“Whiiiim!”

You grab hold of your Pokemon and head to one of the side windows, checking the lock, indeed it was latched shut. “Alright, you know what to do,” you say, placing Whimsicott on the windowsill. She chuckles and rubs her paws together before confidently squeezing under the miniscule gap between the window and windowsill, infiltrating the building. It then undoes the latch, allowing you to push the window up and hoist yourself over the ledge. You part the musty, old curtain and take in your surroundings. 

A long, hall stretches out in front of you, with ornaments, paintings and doors lining the walls. You immediately take a photo, the flash illuminating the accents of gold and red in the carpet and the painted wall. You take a few steps then look back, you’re surprised that the two of you have left no dust tracks in the carpet. The hinges of the first door creak as you slowly open it and peak inside. Now you sneeze, the sheer level of dust in this room is insane. There’s practically a layer of the stuff over the tarp covered furniture, you wonder how long its been waiting here for. You enter the room, inspecting a little further, it appears to have once been an office. There’s a painting over the silhouette of a desk, showing a family of three and their Pokemon. A dignified looking man, a seemingly haughty woman and a young child holding a Purrloin. You tilt your head at the painting, the child had strange hair that stuck up straight, giving him a slightly frazzled appearance.

You take a photo of it, if you find out the story behind this family you may have an even juicer story than anticipated! You flinch as Whimsicott sneezes behind you, blowing cotton all over the room. You frown, you hate it when it leaves that stuff everywhere. Placing her on your shoulders lightly, you then leave the room to explore further. There were many more rooms just filled with covered up furniture, you assume that these were guest bedrooms or entertainment rooms that fell out of use. But before you could reach the other half of the hallway you opened up what you thought was a closet, only to find a staircase leading down.

A pit forms in your stomach when you notice the light shining out from under the door at the bottom of the staircase.  _ Is someone else here too…? _ You jolt when a crash sounds through the door. “Whi-” You quickly cover your Whimsicott’s mouth and turn off your flashlight. Holding your breath as you creep down the stairs, listening, only to hear what sounds like a Pokemon screeching. You open the door just a crack, peek through, ready your camera and turn off the flash. 

The basement seemed to be trashed, there was knocked over furniture everywhere, and crouched in front of the lit incinerator, was a man. At least, you thought they were. You narrowed your eyes, not understanding what was going on until you made out the silhouette of the Patrat in his arms, and the blood dripping into the floor. You froze. It took a moment to compose yourself and register the disgust pooling in your stomach before you took the first picture. When the man’s elongated fangs pried away from the poor creature you felt sick, but took another. The scene was messy, and you couldn’t tell if the Patrat was still alive. You doubted you’d ever know, because the first thing you decided was that you needed to get out of this place, and fast.

Slowly, you stand, and hear your Whimsicott, whose seemed to be sniffling. You blink at it confused for a few moments before realizing too late what was happening. She let out a huge sneeze, causing you to flinch and pale. You quickly glance through the door, only to see piercing, illuminated blue eyes staring back at you. Everything in you screamed ‘run’, so you did. You swore you heard a voice calling out from behind you, but ignored it in favor of sprinting towards the window. You glanced back to see if he followed, looking back only to see a shadowed figure right in front of you. You almost trip as you skid to a halt and turn tail.

“Wait! I can explain!”

_ Explain?! Explain what?! That you murdered a Pokemon? No thanks.  _

You have to hide, you have to, you need to. You hug your Pokemon close to your chest and round a corner, coming face to face with a door. You open it, only to widen your eyes in shock when you find him  _ standing right there.  _ He places his hands together pleadingly and yells, “stop running and listen to me! Please!” 

You… Stop running and listen.

He sighs with relief, there is smeared blood over his mouth and droplets on his scarf. “Oh thank goodness, at least you seem reasonable. I know this looks bad- well worse than bad, absolutely awful, but I  _ swear _ I can explain myself!” 

You don’t reply.

He looked confused. “Um, hello? Can you speak?”

You don’t even blink. You Pokemon struggles in your frozen arms.

The man puts a hand to his forehead. “Oh man… I did something again didn’t I? Ok ok… I’m sure this can be fixed,” he mumbles to himself. He then snaps his fingers in front of your face, nothing happens.

“Uh… Think for yourself?”

You blink, fear clouds your eyes as instant regret clouds his.

He cries out, holding his hands out, “wait stop!”

Just as you were about to run you once again froze in place.

  
The man bites his lip nervously. “This is unsettling… I think I need you to sleep for a while.” He flinches as you began to fall and quickly catches you, the last thing you see before going under is his worried face. 

…

The first thing you see when you come to is Whimsicott, floating aimlessly above you, she doesn’t notice you open your eyes as she’s occupied with a very shiny spoon. Slowly you sit up, feeling groggy, you don’t remember what happened until you see the man pacing back and forth at the foot of the bed with a hand loosely over his mouth. The second he sees you move he freezes and stares with wide eyes, you swallow nervously, but looking at him it's hard to believe that he’s the monster you saw. He appeared to be around thirty, but looked like stress had aged him drastically; he had large bags under his eyes and streaks of white through his strange looking hair. There was no more blood on his suit, but you couldn’t help but notice the clawed fingers. 

He glances between you and the Whimsicott and says, “I know what you saw, but before I tell you anything, I think it’s only fair that you explain who you are and why the hell you’re in my house.”

Your breath catches in your throat. His house??? You tell him your name. “Ever-Everyone told me it was abandoned.”

“And the locked doors didn’t tip you off otherwise?”   
  


You quickly stammer, “I- I’ve encountered locked abandoned buildings before! It’s just part of my job!”   
  
He tilts his head. “Breaking and entering?”

“No! Investigation! I’m sure part of yours doesn’t involve maiming helpless Pokemon!” 

The man looks angry for a moment before closing his eyes tightly. “I didn’t… Oh man… What’s your line of work?”   
  
“I’m an investigative journalist!” you say with pride.

He rolled his eyes. “Oh god… The paparazzi's finally found me…”

“Excuse me?!” Now you were offended, “I didn’t come here for you I came here because I investigate hauntings, and curses, and legends, and this house was a dead ringer for all of those things!”

His eyes suddenly light up, he asks, “you investigate curses?”   
  
“Are you deaf?”

“No… How about we move to a room more fit for a guest and have some tea, hm?”

You mock smile and reply with, “sure, that sounds good.” The second he leaves the room you are going to grab your Whimsicott and bolt for the nearest exit. As soon as he leaves you stand up on the bed, jump and grab your Pokemon, checking it over for any bite marks. Thank god he didn’t decide to snack on your beloved partner, you would’ve been forced to murder if that happened. Just before you began to run, however, you felt an absence of weight around your neck. You realize your camera is missing and grit your teeth.  _ Dammit! He took it didn’t he?!  _ You could’ve blown this whole thing wide open, exposed some strange human looking monster for what he is and gotten the scoop of the century while doing so! You need that camera back. 

You grab the silver spoon off of your Pokemon, to much protest, and put it on the bedside table before heading out to follow him. You catch up to him, he gestures to a room with a green felt table in the middle of it and heads into the kitchen. You enter the room and take in your surroundings. The decor here is much cleaner than the others you’ve seen, the chairs are red lined with gold. An entire wall is lined with awards too, you take a look at one of them: “Unova Poker Championship - 1st Place”. That was impressive you guessed, but what chilled you to the core was that you recognized the name engraved on them: Grimsley. 

No, no way, he wasn’t  _ that Grimsley,  _ was he? Elite Four member Grimsley? Famous casino dealer Grimsley?  _ Oh god it is him isn’t he and you broke into his house and discovered his dark dark secret and now he’s going to dispose of you or something because who would the police believe? Some crummy journalist or a respected higher up in society whose HOUSE YOU BROKE INTO?! _

Interrupting your imminent panic attack was said Elite Four member, who clears his throat from behind you, prompting you to shriek. He flinches, nearly dropping the cup of tea he has in his hand. Startled, he asks, “are you ok???”

You set out a shaky breath and nod, gently taking the tea cup. “This isn’t spiked or anything is it?”

He looked a little horrified at the question. “Of course not… Why would you… Either way, if I wanted you to sleep I could just say so.”   
  
That didn’t help calm your nerves at all. You sit down at the table and put your Whimsicott in the chair beside you, slowly sipping the tea. It tastes bitter and a little vile, but you aren’t going to complain.

Grimsley sits across from you and crosses his legs, leaning forward on the table to study you closer. His eyes were far too light blue to be natural. 

You decide this would be a good time to ask, “can I please have my camera back?”

He flashes you a smile. “You said you were a reporter, right?”   
  
You frown. “Investigative journalist.”

“I assume you took a few photos, didn’t you?”   
  
You stare him down, but don’t reply.

“I also assume that you know who I am, and about the reputation I have to uphold. I can’t exactly have… unsavoury… photos get out.”

You lean back in your chair in a huff, your eyes dart to the trophies lining the wall. “Yeah, I do know a little bit about you. I know that you like to gamble.”

He inhaled, amused, and said, “everyone knows that about me.”

“How about we make a wager?”

If you didn’t have his attention before you certainly have it now. Something flashed behind his eyes. “What do you have in mind?”

“We play a game, and if I win you give me back my camera and I get to go home.”

Grimsley smirked. “And if I win, hmmmmm… You say you’re a journalist, do you do research?”   
  
You nod, determined. “Plenty of it, I have a penchant for digging up rumors.”

He tapped his fingers on the table. “If I win you have to help me.”

“Help you with what?”   
  


“To help me become human again.”

You tilt your head. “You haven’t always been, uh…”

“A vampire?”   
  


“Yeah.”

“I’ve been this way for the better part of three months,” He spoke through sharp, gritted teeth, “and I’m not exactly enjoying it.” 

“You know what? I agree to those terms.”

“You proposed the wager, would you like to pick the game?”

You stop and think for a moment, no way you were going to pick poker, he’d destroy you. But you couldn’t think of anything else, your mind was stupidly blank. Grimsley was already masterfully shuffling a deck of cards. “Uh…”

“You’ve decided?”

You grin awkwardly and shrug. “Go Fish…?”

He looked extremely unimpressed. “Poker it is.”

_ Dammit!  _ “I’d rather not.”

“Then what would you rather play? Blackjack? Guts? Hearts? 31?”

  
You have no idea what those last three are, and you suspect he’s just as good at blackjack as he is at poker. “Fine you pick…” you begrudgingly admit defeat.

He deals the cards and you slowly accept your fate. Because you were completely right. He absolutely thrashes you at poker.


	2. Paper Trails and Otherwise

You feel at home in your apartment, the warmth of the blanket surrounding you is comforting and a bright light shines from your TV, illuminating your living room. You’ve loaded up your favourite show on webflix as you, your Whimsicott, your Emolga and your Swanna casually eat from a bowl of popcorn piece by piece. Whether you’re adventuring or relaxing, night is always your favourite time of the day. Well, aside from the previous night, specifically. That was an ordeal to say the least. You wonder if it was all just a nightmare. Meeting a vampire? Absurd. Becoming indebted to him? Not the best case scenario to say the least. 

You left in a rush the previous night, reassuring him that you’d keep to your lost bet without really meaning to. You figure he was on some sort of high considering he forgot to ask for your address or even any way to contact you. Did he expect you to come back to him for your camera or something? Most of the photos on it were uploaded prior to a cloud anyway. It was expensive, but is replaceable. The little bit of money you have saved up is really going to come in handy, considering you need a camera for your job. God you would’ve loved to have written a story on that mansion, but without those pictures you have no evidence, and who the heck likes to read a baseless story full of exaggeration and lies? Too many people in your opinion, so you decide to only stick to the truth of the matter. 

And the truth is that you are safe, and warm, and slacking off in your PJs when you should really be in bed and _ oh god why is there knocking on your front door it’s like midnight. _All of your Pokemon stand to stare at the door, after a moment of silence another knock sounded from it. Your Emolga jumps onto your shoulder and your Whimsicott follows as you head towards it. It’s moments like this that you wish the door had a peephole, but no a tiny chain to keep it from opening all the way is all you have. At least the glider on your shoulder can just zap anything you consider dangerous. You open the door as far as it will go, and a sharp feeling rushes through your stomach when you see a hooded stranger in the darkness.

Your Emolga squeals and flees. For just a moment you think that you’re going to die. 

And then you hear their voice. “Nice disguise, right? For a moment there it looked like you didn’t recognize me.” Reality comes crashing back in as Grimsley pulls the hood back slightly and lowers the scarf from over his mouth. His eyes shine a little in the darkness, like a Purrloin’s.

You squeak out, “how… What…”

“Are you impressed? I managed to make it here without being spotted too.” He smiles proudly.

You hold a hand up, now more pissed off than anything. “No. Not that. How the hell are you at my apartment?”

“I walked.”

“I didn’t give you my address!”

He grins and places a hand on his hip. “Yes that was inconvenient I’ll admit. I should’ve asked last night. However you are very easy to follow, you see, you left a very convenient trail of cotton.” Grimsley then pulled a large wad of the stuff out of his suit jacket pocket. 

You glare at your Whimsicott, who smiles up at you dumbly and shrugs. 

“I have more by the way.” He then proceeded to pull more even cotton out of various pockets.

You just watch. “Yep just… Dump it all right at my door… Keep going… Almost done? Geez how much of that shit did you pick up?” Whimsicott squeezes out from the crack in the door, holds its tiny arms out and starts gathering up all the cotton that Grimsley drops.

He then commented, “I thought it would be best for you to not have a trail leading right to your house.”

You suddenly begin to feel quite tired. “Uh huh, how’d you find out my room number?”

“Oh your neighbour ratted you out. They said they were leaving for a night shift?” he explained.

You roll your eyes. “Greeeeaaaaat lovely now I know who to trust!”

Grimsley frowns a little. “You don’t seem very happy to see me.” 

Gritting your teeth a little you spit, “oh yeah because anyone would be happy to have a _ vampire _show up at their-”

“SHHHHH!!!” he cut in, glancing around and pulling the hood back down over his face. “Not so loud please!”

“Not suspicious whatsoever. You’re lucky it’s too late to have people casually walking the halls.”

Grimsley takes a moment to calm down. “Anyway, we have a deal, you weren’t planning on shirking it were you?” he asks, looking you up and down.

You cross your arms to try and cover up the fact that you’re in your pajamas, suddenly feeling self conscious. “Uh…”

He gazes down his nose at you.

You shut the door, undo the chain and open it all the way. “Ugh fine. Sure, I’ll help you.”

Grimsley smiles, satisfied with your answer.

“I guess it’s only fair.” _ Not really. _ “Let me just get changed.” You turn to head inside and go to your room to grab some clothes, only to glance out the door and see no one in the lounge. You exit your room to see Grimsley with his hand out towards the doorway, staring at it. “What are you doing?”

He awkwardly shifts his feet. “You see… I don’t feel like I can come in.”

You raise an eyebrow and walk over to him. “Really now?” 

He finds that he can’t even push his hand through the doorway. “I just can’t.”

This is actually kind of amusing. “I think I’ve heard of this.”

He smiles at you. “I guess we’re probably going by classic rules then, eh?”

You smirk back. “What rules did you expect to go by, anime rules?”

He then looks a bit confused. “What’s anime?”

You stare, a little dumbfounded. No one has ever asked you this question before. You decide Grimsley isn’t ready for this conversation, and neither are you. You wave a hand dismissively. “Nothing important. Anyway you _ can _come in, just wait on the couch while I get changed or something.”

This time he manages to follow you inside, he glances around curiously, and flinches when your Swanna hisses at him. “It’s very uh… Cosy, in here.”

You eye him suspiciously. “You mean small? Not used to being anywhere but your big fuck off mansion?”

He swallows and looks away from you. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Sure.” You leave to get changed in your room. As you’re doing that you suddenly remember that you didn’t _ have _ to let the bloodsucking vampire into your apartment, especially with no way to defend yourself. Now you feel like an idiot. You rake your hands down your face in frustration before grabbing a notebook and pen and heading back into the lounge.   
  


You emerge just in time to see Grimsley nervously shoo away your hissing Swanna and perch on the very edge of your couch with his legs crossed. You pause the weblix show that was on the TV and sit on the other side of the couch. He smiles at you politely. You don’t smile back. Whimsicott strolls in from the kitchen and presses a mug into his hand. “Whiiiiim!”

He stares at the cup, a little saddened. “Oh I’m sorry I can’t have this, but thank you.”

Whimsicott matches his expression.

You say, “I’ll take it Whimsicott,” and hold your hand it. She happily hands the sugary, pale cup of tea over, you skull it before opening your notebook. “So.”

He tilts his head. “So?”  
  


“When did this all happen? The vampire thing?” you ask.

“Around three months ago, I did tell you this.” 

“Right right…” You jot down notes as you go. “How did it happen?”

Grimsley winces a bit and looks away, fiddling with his hands.

“Look if it’s a painful memory you don’t have to tell me,” you reassure him, “But I'm thinking if I know the origin of this then we can get to the bottom of how to fix it sooner. _ If this is fixable in the first place. _

He sighs lightly. “Well… I was out late at night…”

“Yes?”

He began to explain, “I was in one of Nimbasa City’s parks, you see, I sometimes play solitaire out in the fresh air by myself. And other games if challengers come by, which they do sometimes. So, a young man came up to me.”

“A young man?”  
  
“Yes.”   
  
“What did he look like?”

“Not sure, he was wearing a hood.”

You grumble a little as you write a big question mark on your page.

“I did see a smidgen of blonde hair.” 

You write. “Blonde… Young… Man… Lots of detail here,” you remark sarcastically. 

“It was dark out…” he clarifies.

“How did you even see your cards?”

“I bring candles with me.”

“God is this like a weekly occurrence for you?”

“Something of the sort. May I continue?”

You nod.

Grimsley begins to elaborate. “Anyway, he sat down across from me, asked me what I was doing and whatnot, so I invited him to play a game with me. We played a few rounds, and then he challenged me of all people to a game of poker. Said that we should both bet something to make it interesting. I didn’t have anything with me that night, so I told him, and he said ‘you have much more to lose than you think’. I couldn’t think of anything other than my house and I wasn’t about to bet that, so he told me ‘if you bet everything that you are, then i’ll bet everything I have’. He then took out a book from his pocket and wrote down a cheque for a billion poke…”

Your mouth hangs open in disbelief. “_ Bullshit.” _

“I’m not lying to you!”

“How did you not find that suspicious?! Who the hell waves that kind of money around?!”

Grimsley looked away, picking at his sharp nails. “Oh man… Someone who wants something that’s for sure. As for suspicion I sort of get… Tunnel vision… When playing games. I was thinking five steps ahead about everything I could do with that kind of money that I didn't exactly consider why this person would offer it in the first place, I got a bit ahead of myself."

“So you saw this huge win that this guy put on the table, apparently nothing for you to lose either, and then you played a round?” you ask.

“Also the candles illuminating the table turned blue when I accepted the deal,” he adds.

“That’s… Freaky.”

He nods in agreement. “Indeed. So we played a while. And well, poker is as much a game of luck as it is a game of skill. And unfortunately, lady luck wasn’t on my side that night…”

“So you lost?”

“I must have.”

“What do you mean?”

Grimsley tapped his chin in thought. “Well, the last thing I remember from that night was the candles blowing out, and then everything went black… I woke up a few hours later slumped over the bench and like… this…” He gestured to himself. 

You’re a little stunned that this could’ve even happened, but the proof is sitting right in front of you. “Wow shit… Can I see your neck?”

He tightened his scarf. “Why?”  
  


“Checking for scars, yaknow, bite scars?” You had no idea if it was really true that vampires bite each other to spread the curse, and now an ample opportunity is sitting right there in front of you.

He relents and lowers the scarf, exposing almost greyish pale skin. There are no scars.

“Strange, no marks.”

He tightened the scarf right back up.  
  
“Any sign of this man since?” you question. 

He shakes his head. “None at all. I’ve gone looking too, All I found was this Xtransceiver at the same park bench.” He takes it from his pocket and hands it to you.

You look the device over. “It’s out of charge?”  
  
“I don’t own a charger for once.”

“I can fix that don’t worry.”

Grimsley smiles at you, just a little, “Man… It’s actually sort of relieving to finally get to talk to somebody about this.”

“Really?” Don’t you have friends or something?”

He frowns. “I do but…” You hear a ringtone sound from his pocket. “I’ve got to take this.” He stands up and walks into the kitchen. 

You ignore his conversation and decide to go over the notes you’ve jotted down. You’ve heard of vampires in legend but you’ve never heard a story anything like this. It doesn’t match up with anything you’ve ever heard before, it was likely that those were all just rumors and legends after all.

After a short while Grimsley comes back and perches on the couch. “Speaking of friends, that was one of them.”

“Yeah?”

  
“She just likes to know if I’m alright.”

You shrug. “Ok. So I have an idea.”

“Yes?” he seems hopeful.  
  
“We do a little digging. Go to a library, read legends, myths, that kind of thing. See if we can dig up anything on your condition.”

“I have a personal library my family used to keep back at my home.”  
  


“Screw it, let’s start there.”

…

A few hours and piles of discarded books later, you’ve managed to find a few legends. You were particularly engrossed in the origin of Johto’s legendary dogs and the Kalosian war 3000 years ago, but you found nothing to do with vampirism. You run your fingers across the bookshelf, stopping and picking out a book. When you open it dust flies into your face, causing you to cough loudly. “How long has it been since you’ve been here?! Are you sure you’re not actually 200 years old because this place looks like it’s been abandoned for centuries!”

Grimsley was draped over a couch on the other side of the room, casually flipping through a book. “I haven’t been able to hire a cleaner for a long time.” 

“There’s such a thing as a vacuum cleaner and a cloth,” you remark, “you sure you didn’t just buy the first haunted mansion you could find on the net?”

He lies the book on his chest. “Look, one person couldn’t clean an entire mansion, by the time you finish the final room the first one is dusty again, so what’s the point?”

“The point is that I keep touching Joltik webs and getting zapped.” 

He raises an eyebrow. “I thought all the Pokemon in the area left…”

  
“They’re the only ones brave enough to stay. Tiny yet mighty.”

He cringes slightly. “They’re kind of gross.”

“Couldn’t you use one as a little tiny shot of blood?” You mimic drinking from a shot glass. 

“One, that’s disgusting. And two, way too small.”

You roll your eyes. “Oh and a Patrat isn’t disgusting.”

“Would you prefer I switch to you then?”

You look up at him wide eyed.

He grins. “Kidding!” You couldn’t help but notice the flash of his fangs.

You let out a sigh of relief and set your current book down onto your pile, deciding to rummage through the shelves once more. There’s a few books in the bottom corner that aren’t dusty.

Grimsley quickly takes notice of where you’re poking around. “Oh man, don’t touch those…”

“Holy shit, are these romance novels?”

“Please don’t look at those.”

You grin. “Adorable. Also oh my god, finally something on vampires!” You pull one of the romance books off of the shelf.

Grimsley pinches the bridge of his nose and screws his eyes shut in shame.

You flick through the book casually, stopping on a particular page. “Oh wow apparently this guy can fly, can you do that?”

“If I can then I have no idea how.”

Suddenly you get an idea. “Ok this research thing is getting us nowhere, I propose another activity.”

“Hm?” He glances up at you.

“We should see what you can do, that way we can cross check any legends we do find to see if they have any credibility.”

Grimsley puts his book away and stands up. “Not a bad idea actually.”

You pull out your notebook, write down the title ‘Powers’ and then think for a moment. “Do you burn in the sun?”

He cringes and says, “I found that out the hard way.” He rolls up one of his sleeves, exposing a nasty burn scar on his arm.

You wince. “Yeah that’s bad… yikes… Can you see yourself in the mirror?”

“Not my mirrors. For some reason I can see my reflection in public though.”

“Strange, there’s probably something in your mirrors then. Allergic to garlic?”

He shrugs, “no clue, everything turns to ash in my mouth. I’ve been trying out different drinks to see if anything stays a liquid but so far no luck. Also these aren’t really powers you’re describing, just afflictions.”

“Good point, ok let’s get to the cool shit then,” you decide to mess with him a little, “Can you stop time?”

He looks stumped. “What vampire has ever done that?!”

You point your pen at him. “You’d be surprised! So I’m guessing that’s a no…”

“Of course not!”

“Ok, can you turn into a Pokemon?”

He seems exasperated, waving his arms about. “Instructions please!”

“Writing down a question mark. Ok I’ll just say this. What do you know how to do?”

“Uh… I just worked out that I can compel people to do things, like fall asleep.”

You can confirm that. “Checking the box for hypnosis… Anything else?”

“I can do this…” He walks into a shadowy corner of the room, you swear his dark clothes blend in a little too well until you realized he’s disappeared. You scan around the room for him, jumping when you feel hands on your shoulders. You turn around to see him Grinning at you. “Ok that was just mean!”

“You mean funny.”

You take a step back away from him. “Anything else?”

“Uhhhh…” He walks over to the couch he was lying on and lifts it up over his head with a single hand.

You stare wide eyed. “Ok is that couch super light ooooor…”

“Uh, no.” He puts it down.

Thinking for a moment, you try to come up with anything else to ask him. “Well… All I can think of now is more obscure stuff like crossing running water or arithmomania… How about we do a little more digging in a few days time at a library? Try to find something there?”

“There _ is _ Lenora’s library in the Nacrene museum.” 

“Awesome, sounds great, anyway I should be going.”

He opens the door to the hallway. “Here, let me show you to the door.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I insist.” He smiles at you.

You give in, and allow him to show you to the door.

“Thank you, by the way.”

This leaves you a little surprised. “It’s only been one night.”

“And yet I feel like progress has been made, shall we exchange phone numbers?”

“I mean, that would make things easier,” you raise an eyebrow, “can I get my camera back while I’m at it?”

He bites his lip and looks away. “In time, yes.”

You exhale, seems like he doesn’t trust you yet, and why would he? You don’t trust him either. “Fine, sure.” You exchange phone numbers with him. “Welp, so, in a week we go to the library?”

“Sounds good.”

“I’ll hit you up if anything comes up before then, anyway seeya.”

He waves a little. “Feel free to stop by anytime.”

You wave, but you don’t look back at him. “Yeah, sure…” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please bear with me with some future characterizations. I try to stick to canon as much as possible but when canon provides as little substance as Pokemon does you gotta stretch things a little with headcanons to make things even remotely interesting. Shouldn't be anything bad though, just adding my own touch. Hope you guys enjoy!


	3. There's No Getting Out

Work is a drag, especially when the one story you had going for you turned out to be a bust. Well, it technically wasn’t a bust, but that’s what you had to tell your manager. “The house was occupied, simple! I knocked on the door and someone answered, clearly I couldn’t just break in after that,” you lied earlier that day. God you wanted to tell this story so badly, an elite four member turned monster? Spectacular! Amazing! The amount of copies that’d sell… But alas, that wasn’t going to happen, not without your camera at least. You grumble and pull up a search engine on your laptop, looking for any creepy stories to investigate. But still you can’t get your current “case” out of your head. 

  
But just as your mind begins to drift, the sound of a digital notification brings you back to reality. You look around to see the Xtransceiver in the corner of the living room connected to a charging cord. The screen was lit up, finally it was charged! You take it into your hands and examine the device, it was a little chipped and scratched but not broken in any way. There was also, luckily, no password protection. You scroll through old text messages from people you don’t know, as well as images of people and places you don’t recognize. There are selfies belonging to a blonde haired boy you don’t know, you don’t know whether that’s the device’s owner or a friend. You exhale and rub the back of your neck, feeling a little voyeuristic peering into a piece of a stranger's life.

Whimsicott floats over and lands on your back, peering over your shoulder at the Xtransceiver as you check the most recent messages, which strangely enough, are all images sent from the same unknown number. All the images are either blurry or smeared, and some contain what appears to be ghost type Pokemon. You press play on a video showing nothing but the clear night sky; the sound of wind was blowing through the receiver, as well as the tolling of a bell. You tilt your head, confused by the sound. There has to be something to this, you think. This is probably important enough to show Grimsley. You take out your phone to message him, asking if you can come over to discuss the device, he answers with a resounding, “of course!”

The trek through the forest is as eerily quiet as usual; you have a feeling that you’re going to have to get used to this route. Out the corner of your eye you spy Whimsicott casually dropping cotton onto the ground as it drifts on the breeze beside you. Of course she had to be doing that, of fucking course. Mentally you make a note to yourself to pick it all up on your way back. You approach Grimsley’s half dead, overgrown garden and inhale deeply. The scent of dried flowers puts you at ease as you approach the front door and give it a hearty knock. 

Very soon after he answers with a bow and a smile, you look him up and down, he is wearing a black and white kimono and is holding a bottle of wine. “Uh, excuse me but what are you wearing?”

He seemed delighted you asked. “A kimono, it’s imported from Johto, pure silk too. I thought you’d know this.”   
  
You fold your arms. “I know what a kimono is, I’m just questioning why you’re wearing it.”

He smiles at you. “It’s relaxing.”

“Sure…”

“Come, come! Follow me.” Grimsley steps aside and closes the door behind you before leading you to the dining room. When you enter the room you swear internally that you’ve seen it in a movie before, only with a little less dust. He pulls a chair back for you and you pause, wondering why he’s being so nice to you. His polite smile fades slightly when he notices you staring. You awkwardly look around before taking a seat. 

Grimsley places a wine glass in front of you, pours you a drink, then gives Whimsicott a glass of water to make it feel included. He sits across from you and pours one for himself, swirling the glass as you take a sip; it’s nice, the flavor was a little strong but you admit that you don’t mind it. You’re actually starting to feel kind of comfortable here for once. The hospitality is impressive if it’s consistent. You decide you don’t mind this and smile at Grimsley, who takes a sip of his drink and proceeds to then cough ash all over the table. Your eyes grow wide, you stand up and exclaim, “are you ok?! What the hell just happened?!”

Before you could head over to him he holds a hand up, wipes his face with a handkerchief and begins to clean the table while grimbling, “god dammit… Everything turns to ash in my mouth…”

You pause. “Wait. You’ve been like this for months now right? How could you not know this already?”

Shame loomed over Grimsley as he said, “I thought this one would be different though?”

You sit back down and tilt your head. “Uh, why?”

He elaborates and shows you the label on the bottle. “Look, this one is a Chateau Mouton from Kalos and the last one i tried was a vintage from Hoenn that had soft overtones of orange and dark chocolate.”

You are absolutely dumbfounded. “IT’S GRAPE BOOZE!!! It’s all the same!!!”

“It really isn’t.”

You felt yourself growing frustrated, but you weren’t about to argue about the intricacies of alcoholic fruit juice with him. So instead you say. “Fine, whatever. Also that label looks super old, why are you even drinking it? Doesn’t wine get more valuable with age or something?”

Grimsley reminisced for a moment before answering. “Well, my parents squirreled it away for my whole life and never touched a bottle, and I never really understood it. Why have it if you’re not going to enjoy it for yourself?”

You take another drink of your apparently really expensive wine and ask, “ok, but you have money troubles, right?”

Grimsley’s eyes widen. “Excuse me?”

“You have money troubles, don’t you?” you repeat.

There was silence for a few seconds.

“That’s why you gambled for a billion poke, right???”

He glanced around the room defensively. “How the heck did you work that out?”

“I’m an investigator dummy, I keep mentioning, I can put two and two together.” 

“Yes, of course.”

“You also clearly haven’t hired a gardener, or cleaners… So to rectify that, if you have a basement full of expensive wine why not sell some off to pay off a few debts?” you suggest.

He fiddled with his scarf, failing to meet your eyes. “I… Sort of wanted to have something nice to keep for myself…”

Now you felt kind of bad. “Yeah, good point, sorry.”

“I understand, you’re only trying to help.” 

You finish your glass and decide to change the subject. “So… This is what I came here for.” 

Grimsley raises an eyebrow when you produce the Xtransceiver from your pocket. “So you got it working.” He stands and pulls up a chair beside you.

“Yeah it took a while but it charged.”

You activate the device and show him the images and video sent from the strange unknown number, he appears perplexed and asks, “what exactly are you showing me?”

“I don’t really know to be honest,” you admit, “but all the other numbers on the Xtransceiver have names, this one doesn’t. Everyone else that’s messaged this device within the past three months or so have asked where the owner is, but they don’t mention their name. This particular unknown number has sent messages in that same time period but only strange images and videos. If you take a look you’ll see the most recent one is from a week ago.”

Grimsley leans on his elbow and rests his cheek in his hand. “Do you think they’re clues?” 

“I kind of do, do you know any notable windy locations with a bell?”

He shakes his head. “Do you know why they’re being sent?”

Your Whimsicott floats above the two of you, sipping its cup of water. You reach up and pull it down so it’s sitting on the table. “Assuming they think the watch was picked up? Maybe to fuck with you?”

“Possibly.”

“There’s one other thing too. I took a look at the photo gallery and whoever owned this glorified watch was  _ obsessed  _ with Christoph.”

“Um, who?”

“Figured you wouldn’t know him. He’s a celebrity idol, a TV star. Whoever owned the transceiver has basically all of his Insta pics.” 

“Insta…?”

You give him a tired look, wondering how someone who is only in his thirties is so behind on the times. “Instasnap. It’s a photo sharing website.” 

“Oooooohhh…” A far off look crosses his face. “I feel that the sooner we find the owner of this device, the sooner we’ll get to the bottom of what happened to me. Maybe they’re wherever the photos are being taken?”

“That’s the question then. Where are they being taken from? Do you know any spooky ghost type hangouts?” 

He raises an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you?”

“I know a fair few but I don’t recognize anything from these photos. Besides even if i did these photos were sent upwards of a week ago, there’s no guarantee that whoever took them would still be there.” 

“True… There was this one place Shauntal would take me to occasionally to train…” 

Your eyes widen a little. “Where?”

“It’s been dubbed by the locals as the “strange house”. It’s full of ghost and psychic types. There may be something worthwhile there considering the types of places those kinds of Pokemon like to live.”

“We could go there now? The night is still young.” 

He smiles at you and pulls out an older touch phone model. “Sure! I’ll book some plane tickets.”

You shake your head. “And risk getting spotted or stuck in the sun? Yeah no way, we’re going on Swanna.”

He lets out a long, frustrated exhale. “I hate flying on Pokemon.” 

“Well get used to it it’s free travel.” 

“...I have a Mandibuzz tucked away in a PC for emergencies.” 

“Good, go get it and we can leave together.”

Grimsley stands up with a concerned expression. “I can’t say how it’s going to react to me though. My whole team doesn’t want a bar of me.” 

You think of saying ‘gee I wonder why’ but instead decide to be a bit nicer. You give a sypathetic smile. “Just think about how nice it’s going to feel when they do want to spend time with you again. Once this is all over that is.” 

He seems comforted by this and says, “that’s true…” 

He turns to leave, but before he does you stand and call out, “wait one more thing!”

Grimsley stops where he is and asks, “yes?”

“Can I have my camera back? Please?”

Instantly his guard is up. “Why?”

You put a hand on your chest. “Because it’s my property and you stole it?” 

He glances away from you and doesn’t say anything.

“Please? If we do find any evidence it’d be a good idea for me to take pictures of it. Also I could write an article on this place, you know, for my job? Which I’m putting on hold for you?” 

Finally he caves. “Only if you delete those pictures.”

You shrug. “Easy done, I can do it right in front of you.” You wait where you are, patting your Whimsicott as he retrieves the camera and hands it to you. It feels so good to have it again. Grimsley leans over your shoulder, watching as you bring up the pictures in the gallery. However, he fails to see you subtly press a button you had your finger on, linking the camera to the internet. You delete the pictures, and he appears to be satisfied. 

Grimsley smiles and says, “thank you, truly.”

You smile back and reply, “no problem,” failing to mention that those pictures had just auto-backed up to your cloud. It’s no big deal, you tell yourself, just a little insurance in case things go awry between the two of you. 

He produces the Mandibuzz’s ultraball and remarks, “let's get going then.” 

…

You cling tightly to your Swanna’s back, keeping your eyes shut against the piercing wind. It’s a freezing cold desert night, and you’re completely unprepared; one measly jacket isn’t enough and the wind bites at your skin. Grimsley is somewhere in front you think, occasionally you hear the Mandibuzz’s cry and that at least lets you know that Swanna is still following him. Your stomach lurches as Swanna suddenly begins a steep descent, but finally slows down enough for you to open your eyes. You’re circling down towards a large, clay house with shattered windows and dead dusty plants covering the yard. Just before you land, however, Grimsley’s Mandibuzz touches the ground and throws him off its back while screeching. Your landing is far more graceful. You watch as he returns the vulture Pokemon while dusting off his kimono. He gives you a sad smile as you return your own Pokemon

“Oh man…” he fixes his hair, “I guess it’s any Pokemon, not just my team. I’m lucky it let me fly for that long. I can’t even go back to the elite four in this state...”

“Wow that… Kinda really sucks.”

Grimsley stretches his arms for a moment before heading straight to the front door and saying, “anyway, it’s time to investigate,” he opens it with ease, “shall we?”

Approaching him you comment, “we probably should’ve brought some repels.”

“And you say I forget things about you quickly, I just said that  _ I am _ the repel.” 

You step into the large foyer. Everything is in a state of total disrepair. Busted creaking floorboards, layers of dust on everything and twitching furniture. You’re sure some ghost types must be already playing tricks; out of the corner of your eye you spot a lamp move to the left all by itself. The scuttering of unseen Raticate and shrieking of Zubat also grace your ears. But as soon as Grimsley shuts the door behind you, every sound ceases. The scuttering and creaking and twitching, everything is silent aside from his footsteps. He stands beside you and says, “huh, this place is a lot more dead than I remember. Furniture used to just float around in front of you.”

You slowly turn to face him, he blinks and meets your eyes. His are an icy, unnatural blue. 

“Yes?”

You don’t reply, because a realization has just hit you, one that didn’t even register the first time you met. You’re locked in here with probably one of the most dangerous creatures in the region. You’ve been conversing and joking around and drinking wine like this is some silly game, but now Whimsicott is in its ball, every wild Pokemon has ran away, and you’re alone. 

Grimsley clicks his fingers in front of your face. “Hello?” You flinch. “Are… You ok?”

“Uh…” You can see how sharp his teeth are.

“Is something wrong? You’re spacing out.”

“I… Um. Nothing! Nothing is wrong!” What if he gets bored of you and you’re next.

He appears concerned. “Are you sure?” 

You head to some descending stairs. “Yep! I’m fine! Lets go this way!” He knows where you live. 

Grimsley takes hold of your wrist just before you walk down the stairs. “Stop for a moment.” 

You stop. 

“Let's sit down.”

You sit down on the foot of the stairs. He sits beside you.

“I can hear your heart beating out of your chest.” 

“Oh…” 

“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

“...It’s just…” You don’t know whether to be honest or not. 

He places a hand on your shoulder. “It’s ok, does this house frighten you?”

You stare at your feet and fiddle with your fingers. He could crush you if he wanted to. “Uh, yeah, yeah that’s it. I’m actually terrified of the dark. Usually I have a torch and my Whimsicott and a whole kit with me but I feel  _ really  _ vulnerable without it.”

“I can see in the dark, if it helps I could lead you?” He pulls his hand away.

“That would be nice…” You could feel his claws brush your shoulder.

“May I take your hand?” he asks gently.

You nod and slip your hand into his cold palm, allowing him to help you stand. Internally you try to prevent yourself from hyperventilating. All you have to do is go back to the way you felt before; like this is all just one big interesting story with no danger or stakes. You just need some opportunity to tease him or make a joke! That’s it! Then you’ll feel better! 

You hadn’t even noticed you reached the bottom of the stairs with him. The room is pitch black, so you use the torch function on your smartphone. Bookcases and chairs fill the room, as well as the stench of rot. Grimsley tries to take one of the books from a shelf, it falls to pieces in his hand. His lip curls, “disgusting…”

“I guess this library is useless then,” you comment.

“It appears so.” He leads you through the room, moving chairs easily as you go. Around halfway through he smiles and glances at you. “I have a fun fact for you.”

“Yeah…?”

“Legend says a mythical dark type lives here…”

“Really?” you try to sound more interested and less scared.

“Yeah, a Darkrai, what I wouldn’t give to catch one…”

“Your humanity?”

“Ouch… Also I am very much still human thank you.”

You force a smile. “Ok bloodsucker.”

Grimsley huffs and looks away from you, folding his arms.

“I’m joking! Don’t be so uptight!”

He takes your hand again. “Sorry, this is a bit of a sore subject for me.”

“Ok, I’m sorry too then. Can we keep moving please?”

The pair of you examine a few of the downstairs rooms after exiting the basement, you find absolutely nothing but cobwebs and dust. As you’re leaving one of the rooms, however, you both jump when Grimsley’s phone begins to ring. While he fumbles with the phone you wonder if he’s ever heard of silent mode. Oddly enough he doesn’t answer it, he stands there waiting for it to ring out, you spot the name “Marshal” on the touch screen. When it finishes ringing out you ask him, “why didn’t you answer that?”   
  
“It wasn’t important.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes I am,” he assures, “great he left a voice message…”

When he brings up the messages the phone’s automated voice says, “you have. 45. Voice messages.”

Your jaw drops slightly. “Wow, you’re kind of an asshole.”

He stares at you with shock written all over his face. “Excuse me???”

“You should really answer your friend.”

He looks around and waves his arms in the air. “And tell him what?! That I burn in the sun and sustain myself off the blood of the innocent?!”

You fold your arms defensively and ask, “what lie do you already have going with him?”

Grimsley drops his arms and sighs. “He thinks I’m on a holiday…”

“Then why’s he calling you so much?”

“It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”

“Why don’t you just check out his message.”

Grimsley huffs slightly. “Because I know exactly what he’s going to say.”

“Ok, shoot.”

He then recites, “hey there Grimsley, it’s been a while hasn’t it? How’s the trip going? I know we haven’t talked much lately but I’m getting worried, can you please give me a call back? Oh it’s Marshal by the way, but I’m sure you know that already.” 

You tilt your head as he presses a number on his phone, playing the most recent voice message. It’s almost word for word what he had just said. “God damn, you know him pretty well huh?”

“Yeah, that and I’ve heard the same thing for months. He’s a very direct person.” 

“You should really call him back,” you suggest, “where does he think you are?”

“Sinnoh.”

You tap your foot. “Ok then, so in the time you were away you’ve fuckin’ hiked up Mt Coronet, visited Sunnyshore’s lighthouse and experienced Jubilife’s nightlife! How hard was that?”

He bites his lip a little and looks away. “I thought you were going to tell me to be honest.”

“No, I agree this whole situation is insane and I doubt he’d believe it, so don’t abandon him.” You point at his chest. “Lie better.”

Grimsley blinks at you for a moment before narrowing his eyes.

“Uh, what?”

“You say, ‘lie better’. I just want you to confirm something with me. While we sat on the stairs, you lied to me about why you were scared, didn't you?”

A pang of fear stabs at your gut. “Why do you say that…?”

He places a hand on his hip. “Because you looked at me the same way you did on the night we first met. Terror was all I could see on your face.” 

You swallow down a hard lump in your throat. “Yeah, and?”

“I’m not offended or anything, however,” he holds up his hands a little defensively, “this is sounding a bit like a ‘you problem’.”

“I… What?”

“Look, all I can really do is reassure you that I’m not going to hurt you, it’s up to you to trust me on that. But if you want to keep your cards close to your chest I understand that too.”

You’re a little dumbfounded by this, for once you don’t know what to say.

“Anyway, to conclude, right now I am indeed a vampire. I could very well be dangerous, and I could very well not be. But, despite that,” Grimsley holds out his hand to you, “will you walk with me?” 

You slowly reach out your hand, and after a moment of hesitation, slip it into his. Remembering how you found him covered in blood with a defenseless creature in his claws, as well as him being considerate enough to pour a cup of water for your Whimsicott. In the end you allow him to guide you through this pitch black, clay house, until you reach the master bedroom at the top of the stairs. There’s an air of loneliness and hopelessness to the room, you have no idea why, there just seems to be nothing in there just like all the others. You turn to Grimsley to suggest leaving but a distant look has crossed his face. “Are you ok?”

“I… Think there’s something in here.”

“Really?”   
  


“Yes, I have a feeling.” He lets go of your hand and walks further into the room.

You stand there, watching, slightly confused. That is until he steps on a loose floorboard and stops walking.

“Right here…” He crouches and lifts the floorboard with ease and pulls something out of it. You shine a light on it and take a closer look. It’s some kind of large stone with what looks vaguely like a face carved into it. 

“Do you know what that is?” You touch it, there’s apparently nothing special about it bar the carvings.

“It looks sort of familiar, but I can’t work out where I’ve seen it before.”

“We should probably keep it,” you suggest, “hey if it’s nothing special I could just put it on my mantle, knick knacks are cool. And well you did just kind of ‘sense’ it.” 

“True…” he continues staring into where its ‘eyes’ are.

You gently tug at his long sleeve. He snaps out of it and looks at you. “Oh… How about we get out of this creepy place?”

“And go back to your creepy place? You know what, sure, at least there’s wine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all can have little a update, as a treat.


End file.
